Smoked Pork Roll (Taylor Ham)

Smoked pork roll, or as I like to call, Taylor Ham, is something that if you are outside New Jersey you may not be familiar with. Taylor Ham is a breakfast meat that will blow your mind, how good it is. Some may say, Taylor Ham does not need any extra flavor but rest assured, this is a great compliment to the best breakfast meat ever.

What Is Pork Roll?

Wikipedia, I think sums its up best here:

“Pork roll is a processed meat commonly available in New Jersey and neighboring states. It was developed in 1856 by John Taylor of Trenton, and sold as “Taylor’s Prepared Ham” until 1906. Though since then food labeling regulations require Taylor and all other manufacturers to label it “pork roll”, people in northern New Jersey still call it “Taylor ham”. The “Is it pork roll or Taylor ham?” question is a notable element of New Jersey culture and the division over what name one uses divides the state along roughly north-south geographic lines.”

What is it made out of? Wouldn’t we all want to know. Again here is what Wikipedia has to say about that:

“Being both a regional specialty and a processed meat with a unique taste, pork roll has resisted accurate description and is sometimes referred to as a mystery meat. It contains lightly smoked pork, salt, preservative, and spices. The exact recipes, both Taylor’s and Case’s, have remained trade secrets.”

If you want to read more about pork roll or Taylor Ham you can check it out here.

How To Make Smoked Taylor Ham

First thing we are going to do is remove the pork roll from the casing, score it, as you can see in the picture below. The pork roll does not have a lot of natural moisture so we are going to want to coat it with some binder, I used mustard for this. Coat it with some mustard and then with some dry rub. I used Holy Voodoo on this pork roll. With that done you can get ready to put it on the smoker.

I used my Weber Kettle for this smoke. We will make some nice hickory smoked pork roll using the Kettle. Just a heads up, some Taylor Ham is already smoked with hickory, so be mindful when you are buying. You may not want to double up the amount of hickory.

Get your smoker up to 250°, once there, place the Taylor Ham on. You are going to leave it in on there for about 90 minutes. You will want to smoke this until you hit an IT of 160°- 165°. Because this is made of minced pork, it has to be taken to an IT of at least 160°, you can take it a little higher if you want, maybe 165°. Once it hits that IT, you can go ahead and pull it.

If you are looking for a great meat probe on a budget, you need to check out ThermoPro. I regularly use the ThermoPro TP20 which is perfect for this one meat smokes.

How To Serve Smoked Pork Roll

You can serve pork roll in a variety of ways. In our house usually I get to slice it and the kids start diving in. Certainly it makes for a great side with eggs or you can also make a sandwich with eggs and cheese on a roll or bagel.

Taylor ham has a ton of natural flavor that once you pair it with some hickory smoke and a rub like Holy Voodoo, you will look to be adding this to your breakfast menu on a regular basis. If you are looking to buy pork roll, take at what is available here.

Thanks for being here and checking out this Smoked Pork Roll recipe. I hope you enjoy it! We always appreciate comments, 5 star recipe rating and social media shares. As always, keep that smoke rolling!

If you are looking for some other posts and/or recipes here are a few suggestions:

• Smoked Pork Nachos
• Grilled Chicken Sliders
• Smoked Stuffed Mushrooms
• Charcoal Smoker Accessories
• Lamb Loin Chops

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